A boat hull requires periodic preventive and corrective maintenance. For example, maintenance is required on the submerged portion of a hull to remove accumulated algae, organisms, and general dirt and extraneous matter. The portion of a hull above the waterline is subject to other kinds of deterioration during normal operation of the craft, especially in a salt water environment, and this upper portion of a hull also requires occasional maintenance.
An owner of a pleasure craft may rent or own a boat slip in which to store his boat between outings. He may also own or have access to a hoisting assembly which typically is made of a hoist, cables, and slings to lift his boat out of the water for maintenance and repairs or simply to store the boat. By storing the boat out of the water, not only is the boat more easily maintained, it is also subjected to less attack from the elements and therefore requires less maintenance.
Larger boats, however, are generally more difficult to lift out of the water. To avoid the difficulty and expense (and possible damage to their boats) in routinely removing their boats from the water between outings, many owners of boats longer than 35 feet leave their boats in the water and periodically dry dock their boats at a commercial facility for periodic repair, painting, and other maintenance.
Commercial dry dock facilities are commonly of the submersible type. To dry dock a boat, the operator of the facility uses a relatively complex apparatus to submerge the dry dock, the craft is placed in position under its own power or by towing, and the submersible dry dock is lifted to lift the craft out of the water. Most submersible dry docks include various mechanisms such as doors, hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders, and other mechanisms. In addition to being expensive, such dry docks are subject to breakdown like any complex mechanical device.
Consequently, there remains a need for a simple, affordable, dry dock apparatus that will allow the owners of relatively shallow-draft pleasure craft to reduce their maintenance costs, perform needed maintenance, and generally secure their boats on a routine basis without significant structural modifications to existing storage facilities such as marinas.
The present invention solves these and other drawbacks in the prior art. This simplified dry docking system of the present invention is intended to be used at the boat owner's boat stall or slip. It can be installed into an existing structure with little or no structural modifications to the dock or overhead support structure. Further, no overhead structure is required in the use or emplementation of the present invention as in known dry docks. Since the dry dock system and method of the present invention is simple and compact, it is relatively inexpensive and places dry docking capabilities into the hands of the average boating enthusiast.